What we know up to this time about the troubling circumstances that now obtain at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is still very little, which is one of the reasons why the information which we have continues to be, unquestionably, troubling. The facts as we understand them are that the Bank’s President, Dr. Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, had been suspended from his position since April 2023. Where the issue of facts is concerned, we are not ideally positioned to go any further.
If, however, the fact of Dr. Leon’s reported ‘suspension’ from office is, in itself, troubling, the fact that the information on the development appears to have been withheld from the people of the region for a protracted period is an altogether different matter. When the head of one the most important regional institutions charged with providing critical services to the Community ceases, temporarily or permanently, to perform the functions associated with the job, the people of the region have a right to know.